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That's the BLS median average. What an embarrassment to go into debt to make pennies once loans, mortgage, raising a family... all after 7+years of post graduate education to make so little.
Podiatry income across professions
Started by Dean’s Chat
Much of the problem with podiatry is other similar professions have absolutely exploded in demand. It is really, really nice to have the supply and demand strongly in your favor. With podiatry you will not have this. Most do find a way to make it work eventually, but some don’t. Low pay/low benefit jobs are not uncommon, you might have to be open geographically and have some good experience for a few years to find a better job or just open you own office in this profession to do well,
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What would be your advice for someone is a good adequate residency (good exposure, learning/university based hospital) during their pgy3 year for job search?
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Start cold calling hospitals. You will get a lot of rejections or no one even answering the inquiries, but it only takes one. If you're considering private practice, make sure they have skin in the game. You may need to accept a lower ceiling type of offer, but it's important to cut your teeth. Almost no one stays with the practice they join straight out of residency so focus on getting experience and a decent base. If the state you want to end up in allows noncompetes then consider making your first job in a state outside where you want to end up so there's no issue there.
Side note: rent your house. Do not lay down roots for a minimum of 3yrs. Don't handcuff yourself to a crummy job because you have a mortgage or other entanglements.
Thanks. In your opinion what is the absolute lowest someone should take outside of residency? I feel like 150 (or 120 with an actually reachable bonus incentive) seems to be the consensus on the forums but I’ve seen grads through my program or neighbor programs be in this range maybe slightly more?
The best you can get is the best you can get. My experience was that I didn't have great offers straight out of residency, but then once I got going, my surgical reps seemed to keep me in the know of potential jobs. As long as you make enough to not move further into debt but get real surgical numbers and job experience it is worth it.
It's also super helpful to join a group or practice where there's a podiatrist who can assist you your first year with some cases. Even when you go to a program where you're pretty autonomous by 3rd year, it is just so much different when it's your patient. I never have had an assist or anyone that knows a dang thing about podiatry where I practice so it's very unsettling the first few times when you tackle a tough case and know there's no one to call. That would have been worth a lot to me my 1st year, and in hindsight would have been worth taking less for a year to have that.
But yeah, I went from very few offers to having regular offers come through once I got going. Most probably suck, but many would have been interesting or I would have taken prior to my current job. It's always better to barter from a position of strength where you can show what your current collections are, and then parlay that into your next job offer. Podiatrists can make a hospital so much money. I don't think most hospitals are even aware. Wound care and our orthopedic type consults collect a ton. I'm at a smaller hospital right now, but I collect more than anyone except the ENT. After 2yrs with this hospital, I renegotiated and got a 15% raise and likely could have gotten more had I wanted to play the game.
You need to understand where BLS gets numbers. It is a lot of time from IRS tax returns. I know a few podiatrists who "pay themself" a reasonable salary of LESS than 150k, yet they are bringing in way more in their business for tax reasons. In the eyes of the IRS and how BLS gets numbers, they make less than 150k. But they dont.
This all sounds reasonable except you can't spend what you don't bring home. Perhaps you could try to make an argument that your company pays for your vehicle, cell phone, and you take your vacation/DME together. You could own your building and pull some of that off. Maybe you max your 401k on both sides to bring tax deductible down (but that's going to be taxed someday). But in the end - at some point the money has to be taxed and in put into your pocket for you to spend it. I'm open to a lot of possibilities but I don't think the "way more" actually applies.
There are possibly people out there who work only as much as they need and focus on expenses and taxes and what not so that "nothing is wasted" like a podiatrist who turns gloves inside out when they leave the room and reuses every #15 blade, but I don't believe this person was going to take home $300K and sagely found a way to be taxed only on $150K of it. I'm not bothered by a person who collects $300K and tries to keep 50-60%. Hopefully they only work 2-3 days a week. There are worse ways to live.
Practice owners take a reasonable salary on their w2. They then take distributions to avoid medicare/social security tax. They still have to pay income tax but are able to avoid (either/both I can never remember) medicare/ social security tax by taking distributions.
Therefore, you get to keep more of your money by taking larger distributions and giving yourself a smaller w2.
yes it is taxed, but the way the income is given to you is from distrubition in the business shares and dividends and not seen by the IRS as salary of a podiatrist, which is why im saying the number BLS sees is low. yes, you are paying tax, you arent avoiding that (except a little bit from FICA stuff)
